Broken

So today is World Aids Day. Which is cool right. For us bloggers, it’s great. I mean it’s an easy post. I can add a ribbon, some facts, and act like I care. But the questions is this: Do I care? I mean, I have not given any money or time to do anything to really help. Yet my rabbi is one who did, and does, and calls me to. He led by example. So maybe I’m just a lousy student who has no interest in the great commission, if that means I need to sacrifice my money and time to actually help.

My calling as a Christ follower is to bring goodness into the world. I can do this by “being” and “doing” works in which I was sent and gifted to do. But that is rather hard. I desire comfort and ease. I want to read more books on Jesus. I want to listen to another podcast by an A-list preacher. I want more knowledge so I can feel smart, even though my life denies the truth that the knowledge reveales.

Let me ask you a question. When is the last time you did something missional? Something that was uncomfortable, maybe you had to sacrifice and help someone else out? Or are you a hypocrite like me, and you’re doing nothing that really matters in eternity? Your day is filled with what you want, need and desire. Sure you talk about it, maybe you blog about, but do you do it. I hear eternity echoing that question in my spirit. I feel and sense the great men and women who did amazing things for God and their world. I can feel them asking me EVERYDAY!

It’s one thing to claim your missional, but are you? Am I? Hell NO. Look at my calendar, or my checkbook. It reveals a lot of who one is. It reveals a lot about me.

If this is true, how can we change this fact? When I hear Rob Bell talk about how kids in Michigan have no coats, and he simply states the obvious. “That is wrong? That is not right.” He never talks about how great his church is, or how many people are coming to his gatherings. But what I do hear Rob talk about is normal life, life outside of Mars Hill. Yes Mars Hill is “attractional” but it is also “incarnational.”

To me the sign of a great Church is not numbers that come (although that could be) but it’s about the numbers that go out and live missionally within the community that God has placed them.

Can we be silent when injustice is all around? Can we be silent when kids are cold, hungry and desperate? Can we be silent when humans are lonely, depressed and in need? I would like to thank not, but we all know that is not the truth. Sure some have a voice, some take action. But if the church truly cared, if I truly cared, would poverty really exist? Sure Jesus tells us that the poor will always be around. But how many times have we used that as an excuse of inaction?

I believe the reason the world is so evil today is because Christians like me have been way to silent for way to long. We left our glocal brothers and sisters in the cold, closed the door, turned on our comfortable suburban heaters of Church growth and ignored real issues at hand. If the church grows how can poverty exist; unless the church grows by attraction and lacks incarnation, the attraction does not matter without the action.

So back to me, I’m thinking through my 2007 calendar and budget. And I’m going to place a high priority on giving more, more of myself and more of money. I hope my city will be a better place because I exist. I hope you will join me.

So to those who are in need, and I did not help. For those who suffer persecution, and I ignored it. For those who are sick, and I’ve failed to help. For those who are hungry, and I’ve failed to give. For those who have no home, and I allowed you to remain homeless. For those who do not know the true story of Jesus, and I did not share it. Would you please forgive me. I’ve failed to truly live out the Jesus story and follow the example of my Rabbi. I hope to someday. Although I can see my window of opportunity closing. Life happens fast, so I must do something now, before my voice is silent for eternity.